►January 16, 2004 - Action Needed To Prevent Spread Of vCJD - BMJ via www.intelihealth.com - "Dr Sheila Bird argues that the death of the first probable victim of vCJD from a blood transfusion means that steps must be taken to define the rights and responsibilities of those at risk, as well as the general public...Because there is no way of testing blood for vCJD, people who have received products that may be contaminated need to be managed as if the disease had been diagnosed."

►January 16, 2004 - Doctors disagree over boy's illness - North Lake Tahoe Bonanza - "Controversy and disagreement are as endemic in the medical field as in any other. One recent example is the recent diagnosis of Incline Elementary School fourth-grader Nathan Shuey."

►January 16, 2004 - State Health Director Redirects Funds For Use For Immunizations - Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment - "Colorado's 15 local health departments recently received nearly $400,000 in additional funds to help enhance their efforts to provide immunizations to children to protect them from childhood diseases...Douglas H. Benevento, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said that he directed that the funds, which were to have been used for other public health purposes, be used instead to improve and expand immunization programs across the state."

►January 16, 2004 - China: Killer Inspires Drive Against Hepatitis Bias - Los Angeles Times via www.aegis.org - "Zhou Yichao, rejected for a public servant job in Jiaxing because he tested positive for hepatitis B, killed one official who denied his application and seriously wounded another. The plight of Zhou - now on death row - has inspired a national movement against discriminatory hiring practices and lack of legal redress...More than 120 million people in China - about 10 percent of the population - are chronic carriers of hepatitis B. Many, like Zhou, show no symptoms and should not pose a threat to co- workers. Hepatitis B is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids and cannot be contracted through casual contact such as shaking hands. Hepatitis B can lead to liver failure and death. More than a million people die from it every year, about a third of them Chinese...Hepatitis B is incurable but preventable with a vaccine."

Comment:  For a different perspective on hepatitis B incidence and severity, go to Scandals: The CDC and “The New Math”, where 1 + 1  does not equal 2.  To learn more about why hepatitis B has spread in developing nations, and why vaccination against it is an arguable strategy, go to Scandals: "But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last." - Thomas Moore (Scandals - update and "flashback").

►January 16, 2004 - FDA Sees Rebound In Approval Of Innovative Drugs In 2003 - FDA via www.intelihealth.com

►January 15, 2004 - Is It a Cold, Influenza, or Pneumonia? - U.S. Pharmacist

►January 15, 2004 - Recommendations to Reduce Medication Errors in Non-Health Care Settings - U.S. Pharmacist

►January 17, 2004 - How you clean could be making you sick - Don't use same sponge to clean everything; bleach is your friend - Akron Beacon Journal

►January 17, 2004 - Puzzle of delay in exposing report - The Scotsman - "ONLY two weeks into new year, and the first significant health scare story of 2004 was shown to be seriously flawed in its scientific methodology...Just as the concern prompted by a study which claimed to "prove the link" between the MMR jab and autism was shown to be incorrect and a case of bad science, so the evidence of toxic contaminants in salmon has been shown to be seriously wanting...Minute scrutiny of the report, written in scientific language that tends to obfuscate rather than elucidate, was diverted. Thus everybody missed the final footnote of the article which revealed: 'This research was initiated and supported by the environmental division of the Pew Charitable Trusts', and questions that should have been asked about the organisation were not."

Comment: Would that they would apply the same high standards of scrutiny to the alleged proof that an MMR/autism link had been disproved.

►January 16, 2004 - Japan to introduce vaccinations against future bird flu epidemic - China View

►January 16, 2004 - Guinn: The nitty-gritty details of MSG - Carolina Morning News

►January 16, 2004 - Fine-featured foes are for the birds - Daily Record - "As if we didn't have enough to worry about!...Carbon monoxide, radon, asbestos, mad cow disease, global warming, interest rates that may soar, a stock market that's anything but cheap...Now you can add bird droppings to the list. And three culprits in particular: pigeons, starlings and English sparrows. (Lesser felons: crows and gulls.)"

►January 16, 2004 - Officials Puzzle Over Flu Deaths Among Children - Newhouse News Service - "A first-ever federal analysis of influenza-related deaths among children has surprised public health experts, who are trying to understand why nearly half of young victims had no underlying medical conditions...Also notable, experts said, is the flu's high toll on older children, who have more mature disease-fighting immune systems than infants and toddlers."

►January 17, 2004 - Shooting up on hype - The chief executive has a chequered past. The biggest shareholder is elusive. Ben Hills investigates a company that claims it has found the Holy Grail. - The Sydney Morning Herald - "Alan Shortall plunges a hypodermic into an orange and injects it with one millilitre of water. He then carefully extracts it and releases the plunger, to demonstrate how the needle automatically retracts into the transparent barrel of the syringe and flips to one side so it can't be reused...'This is the Holy Grail of syringe technology,' he recites for the thousandth time, 'Of course, it's different when you are injecting a person, but you can see that it works. This is not a rort, this is not a scam, we are building a legitimate business.'

Comment:  The irresponsible use of re-usable needles has done untold harm in developing nations.  For more on this, go to Scandals: "But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last." - Thomas Moore (Scandals - update and "flashback")

►January 14, 2004 - How does the immune system work? - The immune system is the body's silent but powerful defense mechanism against "foreign invaders". - Arizona City News via www.zwire.com - "How do we build the immune system? There are several factors involved in building and maintaining a super immune system. These include exercise, rest, mental attitude and optimal immune system nutrition. Americans and their animals are generally weak in all four areas."

Comment:  It's nice to see an article in the mainstream press that deals with the true cause of illness, and doesn't buy into the pill and/or vaccine for every ailment.  But if sickness is due to the absence of immunization, then we're "in like Flint"!

►January 16, 2004 - Fish Oil for Mom May Prevent Allergies in Baby - Reuters Health via Yahoo!

►January 19, 2004 - Snapshot/Do you believe that the benefits of vaccines... - The Scientist

Comment:  With the benefits of vaccines overstated, and the risks either ignored or dismissed, it is a myth that we know anything, really, about whether or not the benefits of vaccines (far) outweigh their risks.  For an overview on this, click here.  You can also go to the Online Vaccines Conference at www.redflagsdaily.com and read Scandals to learn more.

Comment:  Why is it almost always assumed there is no good reason for these lawsuits?  Perhaps there is ample reason to be concerned about vaccines. For instance, perhaps the incidence of vaccine adverse reactions is far higher than what is admitted to by the "experts".  For more on the incidence of vaccine-associated adverse reactions go to Scandals: Avoidance Of Vaccine Truth But Not Consequences -  Are We "Knee Deep in the Big Muddy"?

And what of the statistical methods to analyze the data?  One commonly used tactic, using doses, as in the above example, skews the results whenever multi-dose vaccines are used.  For instance, in the above example cited in The Scientist, given that children receive 4-5 DOSES of DPT vaccine, severe allergic reactions would then be thought to occur in at least one in 200,000 to 250,000 CHILDREN.  If you factor in under-reporting, thought by even the FDA and at least one vaccine manufacturing company to be considerable, the numbers re: severe allergic reactions alone are not so reassuring and could be as frequent as 100/200,000 or 1 in 2,000 CHILDREN.  For more on this go to Scandals: Contemporary Legends - How To Lie With Statistics I

►January 15, 2004 - New Study Reinforces SIDS Prevention Guidelines - HealthDay via Yahoo! - "The risk is greatest for babies who sleep on their stomach; whose mothers smoke; who are covered with bedding; and who sleep in the same bed as the mother. The researchers found six of 10 SIDS cases were attributable to babies lying on their stomachs or their sides. As for sleeping in the same bed as the mother, 77 percent of those SIDS cases involved a mom who was a smoker."

►January 17, 2004 - Hepatitis sufferers win appeal and state redress - The Japan Times - "The Sapporo High Court ordered the government Friday to pay a combined 16.5 million yen to three people who said they contracted the hepatitis B virus in their childhood through then-mandatory vaccinations...Presiding Judge Kenji Yamazaki said in handing down the ruling that it is reasonable to believe the inoculations caused their infections. The ruling overturned a lower court ruling dismissing the claim...'The government naturally was able to predict the risk of such infections but failed to take preventive measures,' he said."

Comment:  For more on the problem of infection via contaminated needles, go to Scandals: "But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last." - Thomas Moore (Scandals - update and "flashback")

►January 16, 2004 - Are fears over polio vaccine valid? - The World Health Organisation (WHO) is accusing Nigeria of frustrating efforts to eradicate polio. - BBC - "Join the BBC's Africa Live debate Wednesday, 21 January at 1630 & 1830GMT."

►January 17, 2004 - The real reason women smokers are at greater risk - The Globe and Mail - "Should cancer of the lung be added to the list of health risks women face just because they are women?...A study presented recently at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago showed that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as their male counterparts. As a risk factor for smokers, female gender appears to outweigh age and amount smoked. Some researchers point fingers at the female hormone estrogen, but there is strong evidence implicating a more likely culprit: the bottling up of emotions, particularly anger."

►January 17, 2004 - Tuna could soon carry mercury warning - Naples Daily News - "As the federal government mulls slapping a mercury advisory on tuna, Southwest Florida seafood retailers say some customers are concerned that the food they thought was healthy could be hurting them...Experts say there's cause for concern, particularly for pregnant women and young children."